(You will find that many in the Domain do indeed wish for a war against non-believers.) After a few minutes' walk, the Clans' envoy meet the executive, his soldiers, and the Kha'ni. He seems to hand a spherical device to both the leaders of the two races. "These can project the whereabouts of certain important ruin-planets, including Ar Gaforn, the one with ancient archives about the seven crises. We have caused some trouble to you, and wish this to stand for a long-lasting peace between our people. The Guilds United's goal is one of survival, not one of dominance, so granting you the possibility to save yourself from the rebirth of any crisis, do not hinder our goals. First however, you must link them to yourself. Think "The Queen of the Core shall never return, even in our death," in whatever language you want, while grasping the sphere. Now I shall leave, and fight..." He repeats it to the others too, before leaving through an entrance. A robotic attendant seems to lead the diplomats to too separate rooms, which he claim to have enhanced connection to space. Captain Rehoar seems even more tense than before. He asks if he can finally leave.

Meanwhile, in space, the Domain fleet seems to grow tired of the Clans' fleet. They send a signal to all fleets: "The Awakened Dreaming Clans and the Kha'ni Temporary Dominion are allowed to extract their personnel. Any unidentified ships shall be shot down, and we should be allowed to scan the lifeforms of any leaving ships. If there is any population not that of the Yuxuns or the Kha'ni on the ships, they will be treated as hostiles. We shall grant them a tiny bit of trust, as we see them as future worshipers of the true Gods."

As soon as the party comes across the Executive, the two guards restraining the captain let him go to do as he pleases. Not wanting to be the first to activate the strange sphere, Kal swiftly hands it off to a servant while trying not to think of the words, while the servant quickly deposits it.

He looks to Dro'ni'hef. "Kha'ni, correct? I didn't expect to see you here. Of course, I didn't expect the current situation either."

Meanwhile, in orbit. Several shuttles break off from the constructor ship and head toward the surface while the main ship itself drifts closer to the Domain fleet.

"Indeed this was not expected, in either case. I hope to see a Yuxun envoy to Kha'to soon. As well I think we shall have to inform the Kreazi on our homeworld of the generosity of their people not to kill our diplomats. I think we will have to show them the same kindness."

"That is if we actually get out of this. My people... Don't take too well to finding themselves in the middle of a war without warning... Especially when that warning doesn't come until after the battle is already over and damage from crossfire sustained."

The landers come to a rest outside of the outpost. Their boarding bays open up and a variety of construction equipment begins to spill out. The support crews begin to immediately dig holes to bury their assault landers in, encasing the exposed portions in rapid drying neocrete, and further covered with sand and soil from the hole digging to soften the bulk of incoming detonations and blows to the neocrete fortifications. An elaborate system of tunnels is dug connecting each lander to each other underground with deployment ramps for larger vehicles to emerge from beneath the earthworks. The crews execute the maneuver with the precision of a group of men who have done nothing but practice it day after day in preparation of combat on some hypothetical battlefield.

Meanwhile in space the construction ship moves uncomfortably closer to the Domain fleet.

Holographic screens suddenly opens in front of the diplomats. They seem to show ground assault troops. Armored Thyaras. There is no explosions or any kind of damage to be seen anywhere, outside of destroying some remaining turrets, but they seem to be preparing for a fight. Weirdly, Captain Rehoar seems to have ditched the thing on his head, and is approaching them, speaking of something. He then enters one of their ships, which then leaves the planet. Another message appears under the screen, showing some kind of number, quickly descending. Besides it, is a video of a spacefleet of many distinct ships, reminding somewhat of the scavenger ships.

As soon as the message broadcast from the Domain reaches Yuxun, the military council that was debating Kal'adrir's proposal instantly enact it, minus the psychological directives.

The fleet of the Awakened Dreaming Clans materializes from the hyperlanes. In contrastto the Domain vessels, the clan ships have a more traditional ship shape with pragmatic and rugged architecture ending in heavily armored prows. 20-40 corvettes, 4 destroyers, and one singular cruiser.

As soon as the ships arrive the converted construction ship empties its secondary payload. Thousands of drop pods are fired toward the planet's surface out of mag accelerators. The pods land near and around the in-progress fortifications. Two armies' worth of soldiers rapidly complete and man their defenses. Its engines fire and retroburners activate before the last pods leave for the atmosphere. The bomb ship presses as far as it can into the center of the Domain formation before either being stalled by ramming into a ship whose mass it cannot move, being shot down, or reaching its destination.

The primary payload of the sacrificial ship detonates, ripping and tearing through the hulk until multiple megatons of thermonuclear fire spills out and erupts against the Domain formation.

On the ground Kal'adrir lights up a sweet smelling nontoxic stick with an electric lighter as news of the detonation reaches him. "My job just became a whole lot easier," he confides in the Kha'ni representative. "What are you here for, anyway? Information on the planet eater?"

From his underground command post the Yuxun general attempts to contact the scavengers' command, replaying his message on a loop. "This is General Xylur of the 1st Expeditionary. If you have any warriors I'd appreciate the assistance, but this is your show. They've got to clear us out before they can get close to you."

Once the ship detonates scores of strike craft pour from the cruiser and fly ahead of the corvettes straight for the Domain fleet. The corvettes themselves arrange themselves in a loose formation to better maneuver away from the flying debris of their own fallen wreckage. Clad in twice researched heavy armor and bearing no shields the ships all, collectively, make their move toward the distracted Domain fleet to get into range of their mag accelerated weaponry.

The Domain fleet starts firing at the Yuxun fleet when they get close. A message is sent. "You're denying enlightenment, and shall thus be destroyed. Don't you realize, that your alone at this? Those scavengers surely don't have any fleet?" Right then, the previously seen Guilds United fleet appears, as the counter reaches zero. The holographic screen in the bunker switches to another similar fleet, but this time it is entirely colored red. This time it includes several huge ships, probably Battleclass-size.

A scavenger explains the size of the first fleet. 144 Corvettes13 DestroyersHowever, they are not made for war.

Kal leans to one side and points at the hologram with his cane. "It just became a lot more unfortunate. Reinforcements have arrived."

The ships of the Awakened Clans, however, were. The strike craft swoop in to fire their payloads. The armor of the corvettes soaks the Domain's disruptors, but some inevitably fail and die out in smoking wrecks. The other ships push past the wreckage, undeterred by the fallen. The first weapons to ignite are the large guns of the destoyers. Two of them lob their giant ballistic shells toward the Domain fleet while two are equipped with the experimental tech of R'lyeh. Great random arcs of lightning strike into the Domain formation.

Lacking the concept of a naval tradition, the Clan ships waste no time and procede to fight as they are accustomed: as a great road war, using their ships as they would a souped up spike covered hot rod on the ground.

Once the corvettes are in range to fire their autocannons they fire indescriminantly as the afterburners of their engines ignite. They surge forward, making no attempt to change course in order to avoid collision. Their armored prows find easy targets in the tall Domain ships, driving into them at full ramming speed while their guns fire at any and all targets. Those who just barely miss their mark fire a broadside of harpoons designed to pierce the armor of their own ships and either winch themselves and their targets together, or have either their cabling snap or harpoons rip out of the opposing ships from exceeding the maximum speed and force to use them effectively. Many spin away out of control from such failed engagements, some correct themselves and regroup to attempt another ram. Others slam into other ships and fasten themselves to the hull.

Those ships snared by the boarding harpoons soon find small holes being cut into the hull by plasma torches. Groups of Yuxun warriors wearing space suits breathe evenly in meditation as they watch the cutter slowly open their way into the ship. Behind them more numerous child soldiers armed with pistols and light submachine guns and wire cutters eagerly and anxiously wait for the more heavily armed Dreamer marines to spill through first.

The dedicated carrier cruiser moves with its destroyer escorts. The rationale being that every hundred miles that it presses forward is one hundred miles less a fighter bomber has to fly to dock again for repairs, refueling, and rearmament.

The Clans' attacks on the Domain doesn't do too much damage; it is obviously who has the advantage. It was however a surprise, and the Domain ships are not used to attack the older design of the Clans. Stuck between the the Clans and the scavenger fleets, they still seems to have the upper edge, due to superior technology, yet they cannot manage to do too quick of an advance. Yet, the red fleet of the Guilds United closes in on the FTL engines' activation time, which shall be followed by an instant teleport to the the battle. It seems like they are attempting a temporary retreat, possibly to wait for reinforcements. In 3D space it is hard to surround them completely.

The clan ships do not concern themselves with surrounding the Domain. They charge headfirst into the Domain ships as fast as their engines will allow them. Destroyer seeks out destroyer, the mobile hangar seeks out the other cruiser and uses its great momentum to crash into the center of its tall design. The Clan ships entangle themselves with the Domain ships wherever they can.

The void teems with strike craft and newly launched boarding shuttles. They latch themselves onto the Domain ships where they can, primarily in areas already softened by kinetics and bombs. The Yuxu warriors break their pre combat meditation when the the Domain hulls are breached. A cacaphony of fragmentation and flashbang grenades herald their arrival before they charge out onto the Domain decks with shotguns, rapid fire weapons, some with curved and serrated blades, some with nothing but their own fists and bloodlust. All of them veterans of the Unification Wars and the minor brush wars that spiked afterward, all of them eager to kill an enemy u known to them, one they cannot predict, one whose blood bleeds differently and makes unknown death screams.

The compliment of child soldier fall out after the older masters of combat. Working in pairs they worm their way into vents, side hatches, and anything else that looks remotely maintenance-like and begin severing wires with their insulated wire cutters, pistols at hand to deal with any stragglers that come across them. In the vents they cut holes in grates they find, chucking grenades out of them and causing chaos in areas the Dreamers and their Sleeper battle fodder have not entered yet.

At this moment 30 Corvettes, 20 destroyers, 5 cruisers and 1 battleship, wearing the mark and colours of R'lyeh exit from hyperspace, heading towards the battle. A broadcast is put forward to the Domain vessels:

"The Domain of the Kreazi, know that a state of war exists between you and the Great Realm of R'lyeh, servants of the Great Old Ones and harbingers of a new age. We will accept nothing but your destruction or servitude. Past transgressions against us have reaped their toil and no further diplomatic contact of any kind will exist between us. In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming."

A new message is sent to the ships belonging to the Awakened Dreaming Clans.

"I, T'ith, High Priest of the Great Old Ones, ruler of R'lyeh have answered your call to arms, sent to me via the one of my servants sent to speak with you. You have been granted the gift of our benign view of our people and our interest in protecting you from the wider galaxy, do not squander it and we will apprecite your cooperation."

A large wormhole opens in the space where it seemed like the Domain was fleeing to. As they disappear through it, a large purple explosion happens on the planet, destroying the base. Any ship pursuing them don't return.

A remaining drone sends a transmission. "You have forced us to use drastic messures, and have ruined our plans to interrogate the scavengers, yet, they shall not survive."

Other than the Red Fleet, who arrived some time before the R'lyeh (the scavengers are supposed to have amazing FTL-drives), all of the scavenger part of the fleet has been destroyed. They send a transmission. "We see that this was a victory, yet not a glorious one. Nevertheless, they did not achieve their main goal. Our contacts down on the planet told us that none escaped. While they had the advantage on the planet's front, they failed to escape from the surface. The bomb destroyed most of both armies and the base, but thankfully some of the lower bunkers seems safe for now. This leaves only the diplomats and a hundred of our own alive. A rescue operation shall be done. As we are not of the Guild Hiwyqa, we don't know of any trade deals, and don't expect any reparations from us. Their business are not ours. We shall yet ask, have you seen them escape with any prisoners?"

(It is just an emergency FTL, really. There had already landed armies on the planet, as seen earlier, so that might have included some kind of bomb. The Domain did lose the battle, but they're not so foolish as to lose their whole fleet... Anyways, that wasn't their whole fleet.)

(Hey, I advertised my bomb ship several posts in advance. You didn't even touch on the surface armies beyond them being there. The whole schtick of my race is they don't have a whole lot of tech, but they know how to leverage what they've got. If I'm not going to get any responses to the things I do and have everything wiped away by the hand of God, then I have no reason to be here. I'm here to ROLE. PLAY. Not sit for Story Time With Zuko.)

Theclans wrote:(Hey, I advertised my bomb ship several posts in advance. You didn't even touch on the surface armies beyond them being there. The whole schtick of my race is they don't have a whole lot of tech, but they know how to leverage what they've got. If I'm not going to get any responses to the things I do and have everything wiped away by the hand of God, then I have no reason to be here. I'm here to ROLE. PLAY. Not sit for Story Time With Zuko.)

[From what I understood you fleet wasn't wiped out, just the scavenger base.]

(I mean hell, tell me if my ramming and boarding is having any effect or not, if the armor is too thick or dense to cut through in a timely manner. Show that the Domain admiral is thinking about the Clans' unconventional tactics. This is Heavy Roleplay, I expect details.)

(I've been going hardcore in this thread all week to the detruliment of my other threads, I know his post schedule. And I know you're trying to get me to calm down, but that has the opposite effect on me. I'll keep posting till I'm left alone.)

(I'm currently on some trip, so it is hard to keep track of the RP. Posting whenever I can. I actually didn't realize you had ground troops there. I will be without internet for the next days, so I was sort of trying to put an to this battle. Of course, it seems like the war will go on afterwards. In later battles and events, I shall try to be more heavy on the roleplay.)